Dennis Quaid Reveals Cocaine Past

April 11, 2011 12:23PM

Sure, he’s making a splash on the big screen with Soul Surfer, but veteran actor Dennis Quaid has a not-so-clean past. In a recent article he opened about about his “biggest mistake” — an addiction to cocaine.

According to a Newsweek article (via PopEater), Dennis dished about being introduced to the drug back in the 1970s. “It was very casual at first,” he confessed. “That’s what people were doing when they were at parties. Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised.”

It was even supplied on movie sets “because everyone was doing it.” For Dennis, the drug became a way to handle his newfound fame and because of it, he turned into a different person, trying to pretend that everything was all right even though it wasn’t. He recalled, “Meanwhile my life was falling apart, and I noticed it myself, but I was hoping everyone else didn’t.”

All of the sudden, it sounds like an instant wake-up call put him into another, more healthier path. “I had one of those white-light experiences that night where I kind of realized I was going to be dead in five years if I didn’t change my ways. The next day I was in rehab.”

And he credits the road to recovery with making him a stronger person. “It gave me the resolve and a resilience to persevere in life. If I hadn’t gone through that period, I don’t know if I’d still be acting. In the end, it taught me humility. I really learned to appreciate what I have in this life.”